Welcome to Bend Oregon and its surrounding areas. A place of extremes. Poverty and wealth; heat and cold; green and brown; forward and backward; wild and domestic. One of the US's best kept secrets ... well, it used to be! "Come get it while it's hot!" Everything's for sale!
Let me show you what I love about this place ... and some of what I don't.

Monday, October 17, 2011

I have finally arrived on Tarawa, in the country of Kiribati, straddling the equator in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. According to legends, it is the centre of the universe ... and I am not so sure I doubt that. Google Earth can give you a good view.

33 atolls, 100,000 people .... and it may be the first country to disappear due to climate change and rising sea levels ... and there are still people that want to deny it's happening. Come here ... it is happening.

Whether you believe human activity contributes to climate change or not ... if there is even the slightest chance it does ... don't you have an obligation to do your part to reduce your possible impact? Come here ... and see the beautiful people and country you may be destroying.

In the following 2 years, while I complete my volunteer assignment with Australian Volunteers International, I hope to show you something about this wonderful place. Maybe, then, you will feel compelled to care more about how your lifestyle choices affect the rest of the planet

... because they do.

From the air, Tarawa can be seen as a narrow (average width is 400 metres) string of atolls. Inside the ring of coral atolls is the lagoon, outside is the open ocean.

The average elevation of the country is less than 2 metres about sea level.

The ring of atolls is broken by a series of channels that allow the lagoon to be filled and emptied by the rising and falling tides. Makes it more challenging to get from one end of the atoll to the other ... man-made causeways have been built to enable easier movement ... but tend to trap pollutants in the lagoon, creating some of the highest counts of e-coli bacteria in the natural world.

I also saw "The Hungry Tide" and felt that the President needs to declare war on Australia, the US and any other interested parties.Their plight is so urgent and yet even the supply of fresh water is not prioritised by the Australian government.

We are all behind you Dennis and look forward to some truth from the inside, now you are there.

Thanks Sara ... just spent last weekend on Abaiang ... it is truly a magic place, and the people are just wonderful ... friendly, great dancers and singers, happy ... very sad to see them disappear as a culture.Additionally, the introduction of Christianity means they now bury their dead on land instead of sending them out to sea (where they believed Heaven was) ... consequently, their groundwater is becoming polluted ...every action has a consequence!

Wow it looks like paradise except for the rising sea levels of course. Good luck with fixing things especially IT things. let us know if they need a school teacher and swimming instructor!Great photos tooCheers Fi

My Story

On Tarawa, The Republic of Kiribati for 2 years of volunteering as an IT Trainer. Kiribati may be the first country to disappear due to rising sea levels. Learning new skills will enable its citizens (i-Kiribati) to gain employment and start a new life in other countries, should they have to move.

“Your greatness is measured by your kindness; your education and intellect by your modesty; your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices, and your real caliber is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others.” William J. H. Boetcker